Victoria Pendleton and Jessica Varnish disqualified from team sprint at London 2012 Olympics

Victoria Pendleton’s challenge for a hat-trick of Olympic titles faltered at
the first hurdle in the Olympic Velodrome when she and partner Jessica
Varnish were disqualified after semi-final of the team sprint.

Pendleton and Varnish had made a scintillating start, setting a new world record in the opening qualifying roundPhoto: PA

On an evening of confusion and mismanagement that left 6,000 spectators in the velodrome at time unclear what was happening, the British pair were relegated after making a mess of their transition and switching the lead outside the permitted zone.

Pendelton said she was “bitterly disappointed” but accepted responsibility for an error that cost them the chance of a gold-medal ride against China, with whom she and Varnish had traded world records in the opening round of the competition.

The Chinese would have been favourites having lowered the Briton’s world mark, but were themselves disqualified in the final for making the same error that cost the British pair, handing the Olympic title to Germany.

“If you don’t stick by the rules, it can happen,” Pendleton said. “It’s a split-second mistake. It happened so fast. Jess moves up slightly, I saw the door and took it. We are both partly to blame for not changing within the legal zone.

“It’s something we’ve practised many times and I haven’t really got any explanation for why. We are especially sad for all the people who’ve come to watch and made the effort to get tickets and be on the journey with us. These things happen.

“We are talking like a hundredth of a second, a blink of an eye. Jess and I were going way faster than we’ve ever gone before.”

In the team sprint the first rider, in this case Varnish, is required to lead for a full lap of the 250m circuit before pulling aside to allow the second rider to complete the race.

As the duo approached the end of the first lap in their semi-final, travelling at around 48kph, Varnish pulled aside fractionally early and Pendleton eased to the front before they had reached the line.

Replays showed that the distance was less than the diameter of Pendleton’s front wheel, but it was enough for the French commissar to review the footage and, after a long delay, eject the British pair.

The decision was greeted by boos and anger among spectators in the velodrome, who were given no information about the disqualification or shown any replays of the incident.

The viewing public were barely any the wiser as the Olympic Broadcast Service again failed to deliver even basic standards of coverage in a cycling event. After the chaos of the road race last Saturday when there were no time splits, there was no replay of the incident for around 15 minutes, leaving broadcasters around the world floundering.

Pendleton suggested that she and Varnish may have paid for a relative lack of practice on the crucial transition, with both of them in peak form.

“You are giving 100 percent, thinking about every pedal rev,” she said. “I am focusing on Jess’s wheel, trying to time my change. It’s not something that’s easy to judge.

“It is difficult to tell where you are on the track when you are going as hard and fast as that. We will have practised that thousands of times.

“The faster you are going, the quicker things are happening. We haven’t had that many opportunities as a team to be in that top, top peak form and do that technically in our best form. If there was another competition I think we’d be all right.”

Pendleton can take heart from the pace she set in the early rounds, and will begin her defence of her individual sprint title and the keirin knowing she is riding faster than ever.

For Varnish there is no such consolation. Her Olympics began and ended last night, with Pendleton saying she was “devastated” for her partner. There was no complaint about the ruling, however.

“The rules are there to make it fair for everybody,” said Pendleton. “It is best they stick to the guidelines very closely rather than have a wishy-washy approach. The rules are there to make it a fair sport and I agree with that.

“The positive that can be drawn is that I was definitely going faster in both those rides than I’ve ever gone in my entire life. My training has been going really well. So keep my head down and hopefully smash it in the keirin and sprint.”

Pendleton was the victim of an error last night, but also a new determination at the UCI to clamp down on regulations that have been not always been imposed strictly. The British team were even fined 500 Swiss francs for “failing to respect instructions from the Commissaire” when a mechanic stood on a ramp at during the qualifying rounds.

Pendleton was the beneficiary of the rules in the World Championships in Melbourne in April when her arch-rival Anna Meares was penalised, having apparently sealed the sprint title. Pendleton was awarded the race and went on to win the title.

She is hoping to do the same here without help from the judges when her keirin campaign begins tomorrow, with the sprint qualifying starting on Sunday.